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Would you pay $100 a month for wireless?

Posted Feb 20 2008, 03:17 PM by Kim Peterson
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Price war! Two words consumers love to hear. In this case, the war is among wireless carriers unveiling unlimited calling plans for heavy phone users.

Verizon started it all by announcing a $100 plan for unlimited voice. AT&T and T-Mobile USA joined in with similarly-priced plans, but T-Mobile added text messaging as well.

That leaves everyone waiting to hear from Sprint, the last of the big four carriers. UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik thinks Sprint will undercut everyone with an unlimited plan priced at $60-$80 a month. Hodulik thinks Sprint will make the announcement in the next few weeks.

That's got Wall Street in a tizzy, and telecom stocks took a tumble today as analysts slashed their ratings and feared for tough times ahead. A Credit Suisse analyst downgraded the entire sector to "market weight" from "overweight," citing the price war and macroeconomic weakness.

Verizon shares fell today but began a remarkable climb this afternoon, closing down less than 1% to $35.20. AT&T shares dropped 4% to close at $34.29. Sprint shares fell nearly 6% to $8.71.

The big question is how exactly this price war will sway consumers. Most people don't pay anywhere near $100 for wireless service, opting for cheaper plans with limited minutes. Now that the prices of unlimited plans have dropped, will people upgrade so they can talk all they want? Or, will carriers see downgrades by high-spending customers, the ones who previously paid hundreds of dollars a month for unlimited service?

One analyst, Michael Nelson of the Stanford Group, said he thinks downgrades are more likely than upgrades. And that's what's got telecom investors nervous.

Would you want a $100 monthly wireless bill? That's a pretty steep price for the average wireless user. But at least you wouldn't have to worry about going over your minutes. Let me know in the comments. 

Comments

 

Why are the US carriers so far behind, thispolicy has been long time comming, the rest of the world has this policy in place. $100. 00 no way, they need to lower it way below $50. While i am on the subject of the US carries being behind. How about they change the policy , so that we only pay for outgoing call time. Say i only pay for calls i make, and not for calls i receive. the perosn who called me should pay for that. same goes for Text messages. this is also available in teh rest of the world. We are so far behind.

I have verizon & am happy with it.  I've never lost a call & can receive calls anywhere  in the USA. BUT $100 is alot to spend on a phone. If all you have is a cell phone & it bottoms out you're SOL. I don't care what company you have!

I watch my min. closely & spend @$80-121 on my bill.  If they would come down to $60  monthly for ulmted calls I'd go for it. I still have the "old land line phone" Ya never know. But that is verizon also. I happen to like them. They should think about a discount if you have cell & land line and stick with the same company.

The phone companyies have us either way ya look at it. We need to be in the present and you can't hide when peeps know you hava a cell phone.

I gave up my home phone quite a while back and have been strictly cell phone.  Doing, this actually saved me money every month.  I used to pay $99.99 for 2100 minutes on VZ.  I jumped at the chance to go unlimited.  And for those of you who think that is a lot of time to talk on the phone - you are correct - and last month I went over 35 minutes - and that included my "in" calling, nights & weekends too.  I love the VZ service I have and have had NO problems whatsoever!

Some months I use a lot, and some months I don't. I've done a lot of calculating and if I use all my 1000 minutes, I'm paying about 8.5 cents per minute, including taxes. Most months, I use half my minutes and end up paying 16 cents. As soon as my contract with T-mobile is over, I'm switching to "pay as you go". I hate contracts and have several pre-paid phones now. Ten cents a minute is the going rate. If you phone breaks, you can simply buy a new one for $30 and keep going. You can change carriers anytime.

I already pay more than $100 a month.  However, a good plan that includes Canada and Mexico would really interest me.  We live in a global society... and those of us who have family across the border pay more for everything.  With Verizon, I have a plan for $200/month for 4,000 minutes to anywhere in the USA, Canada, or Mexico.  So Verizon, how about including our neighbors to the north and south in your new plan?

No I will not pay $100 a month for cell phone usage. I think, they are not doing all that they can in todays time when a family of 5 will have 5 phones what are the extra incentive for these people? How able the big giant called Verizon stepping up to the plate and offering an early start time on their free usage plan? All the other company are doing it, what are they waiting for?

$100  a month......... Hell no..... I can barely buy milk at 4.25 a gallon.

I have used Verizon for the past 6 years or so, very happy with their service.  3 cell phones and an airless card cost me about $196 a month, never have run out of minutes yet.  Great customer service, which is increasingly rare these days.  New phones every 2 years at no cost to me, which is a major plus.

NO WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're trying to sell you too much crap anyway.

Would pay $100 for unlimited minutes in a heartbeat!

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